Navigation

Trainose staff sign collective deal

Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane, the Italian railway company that submitted the only bid for Greece’s rail operator Trainose last month, is moving to tie up loose ends ahead of completing the 45-million-euro purchase.

It appears that a two-year collective agreement between Trainose’s management and the company’s staff, who numbered 679 at the end of last year, has been signed, apparently eliminating the possibility that Ferrovie, or FS Italiane as it is also known, will face industrial action when it takes over. There have been reports that employees were offered a one-off lump sum of 1,000 euros each as a bonus ahead of the Italian firm’s purchase of a 100 percent stake in Trainose.

There was repeated strike action by staff in the runup to the tender, costing Trainose millions in lost revenues. The protests also compromised the firm’s efforts to provide a reliable service for the shipment of goods arriving from Asia at the port of Piraeus to other parts of Europe.

Trainose’s wage costs last year reached almost 26 million euros, while its revenues came to 125.2 million euros, although 50 million of this was a state subsidy for running trains to remote parts of the country.

Ferrovie was named the preferred bidder last month after submitting the only offer for Trainose.